8/10/2015 Route: Via Little Browns Creek Posted On: 8/11/2015, By: lucmacarthur Info: Drove a modified Cherokee up to 13,700 feet with no difficulty. The road is roughest right at the beginning, and then for a half mile or so after the creek crossing. We were followed up by a stock 4-Runner on AT tires who managed it perfectly. Once the switchbacks begin it‘s smooth sailing, with only a few rough and steep switchbacks right before the parking at 13,700 feet. |
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8/9/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 8/9/2015, By: jmark Info: Road is easy to follow. Be careful on loose rock on the descent. |
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8/2/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 8/3/2015, By: sjkoontz Info: KEY FOUND!!!! A member of my group for a Nissan key on the trail. We put it in the brochure box at the TH. |
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7/11/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 7/12/2015, By: SnowBear Info: There was only one switchback high up where there was still a few feet of snow to cross, soessentially none on the whole route. There was snow patch on the uppermost slope across the recommended trail, so everyone hiked the ridge to the summit. Just above Baldwin creek there was one big creek crossing on the road; there were two logs nicely tied together set across it as a bridge; these logs were off to the right where you might miss seeing them. There was one more seasonal creek across the road a few hundred meters later. It was not difficult to cross on rocks. |
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7/5/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 7/6/2015, By: amberw Info: Some snow patches, but all very avoidable. We drove my RAV4 to a half mile below the water crossing. I think we could have made it over, but I‘d suggest a vehicle with higher clearance. |
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7/3/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 7/4/2015, By: duncanmil Info: The road/trail up Antero is clear for all hikers. It is a beautiful climb. I started at the creek crossing (10800 feet) at 4a.m. This was the first time I got driven off the top by lightning at 8:00 a.m. By 9:00 the sky was clear. Because of a snow field the only way to the summit is straight up the ridge, but it is not difficult. |
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6/26/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/26/2015, By: Fr3ako Info: Managed to park at the 4wd trailhead just before the stream, the road is a boulder field though... Trail is dry at 95% and remaining snow patches are easily avoidable. Summer shoes only. |
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6/18/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/18/2015, By: alpinenut Info: Attempted to the ski the west slopes today. We parked and camped at 10,850 just after the stream crossing. Hiked up the road. Never got the skins out. There is not even close to a continuous line down the West Slopes. We ended up skiing of the south side of the summit. Snow starts about 10ft below the summit proper. Then we traversed back to the ridge and hiked over to point 13520. We skied some beautiful corn for about 3-400ft off the south side, then traversed again to 13089 and skied down the S And W most gully on the west face. Nice soft snow for about 600 ft then about 200-300 ft of gully crisscrossing to the snow line at about 12,200. Started at 3am had firm snow from about 12,400 and up. Summited at 8. The S side off the summit was pretty firm. Very much survival skiing. The east facing slopes off the south face were beautiful corn. But softened up quick. I would not have touched them after 9. It was really warm last night and today. Postholing almost everywhere by 9-930. |
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6/17/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/17/2015, By: Daniel Joder Info: I‘ll have a full report with pictures up by tomorrow night. The short story...all you need is boots with good traction on snow and rock--and preferably waterproof as there is lots of water across the road in many places, and one good long jump test a few hundred yards above the creek. I parked my Tacoma at the 4WD trailhead and waded across the creek in my running shoes, then switched to boots (bring a towel), leaving my runners behind for the re-crossing upon returning. You‘ll find snow on the switchbacks and snow on the final climb up the ridge to the summit. A lot of it you can avoid or walk next to it, or just follow the boot tracks. There are a few snow traverses that cross steep gullies (switchbacks) or have potentially long runouts below (switchbacks, final ridge), but if you just follow the boot tracks you should be fine. I carried an ice ax and microspikes and used neither. |
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6/5/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2015, By: WillRobnett Info: Climbed Cronin Peak (13er) and started from standard route of the Antero. Drove .5 miles in on the Antero Road (277/Baldwin Gulch) before hitting a 4 inch layer of solid ice. It covered the road for about 30 feet, incline.. Started hiking from there. Around 2 miles in on the Antero SW Slope Route, a thin layer of ice covered rocks at the creek crossing making it a little dangerous to cross in early AM freezing air temps. Snow was completely avoidable until a little after that point when I left the Antero route and started climbing the NW ridge of Cronin. |
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5/31/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 5/31/2015, By: SnowAlien Info: Great day skiing Mt Antero. Coverage is very good. Found a fun narrow choke. North face looked awesome as well. Consistent snow from 11k, basically soon after creek crossing. No luck with driving up the road though - a large snowdrift blocks the road just 0.5 mi above lower TH. Cronin looks very nice. |
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4/4/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 4/5/2015, By: BillMiddlebrook Info: Taken during a climb/ski of 13er Cronin Peak, here are some pics of Antero's west side. Clearly, Antero is lacking snow and the west side is not skiable. The Baldwin Gulch/Antero road is still mostly snow-covered but it's on and off for the first 2 miles. On the first mile, there are several very icy sections, including a sloping ice bulge with exposure on the left side of the road. Danger! Microspikes would be helpful. |
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4/4/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 4/6/2015, By: spiderman Info: The road has 0-12" of snow for the first 3 miles. The next 2-mile section has 12-36" of snow. The crust was supportive enough in the morning but I started to breakthrough occasionally on the decent (no snowshoes worn). The upper 3 miles of road is too snow covered for good travel. Instead we went up the gully from 11,900‘. The snow was solid and made for fast travel. Above 12,600, we went straight up the rocky slope. It is quick going up but painful going down. The peak itself has several icy snow slopes. The trail was half buried in it. We wanted to climb directly up the south ridge of the peak proper, but 60 mph winds made us traverse further east. There were a couple sketchy icy snowfields to traverse. They were only 15-30‘ wide, but with a drop that goes all the way down into the center bowl. These could have been all avoided by staying on the ridge instead of the face (assuming less windy of a day). Total hike time = 12h. |
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2/2/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 2/3/2015, By: youngk2844 Info: I made my approach Sunday afternoon, bivied at treeline and summited on Monday. I left my snow shoes in the car hoping the trench on Baldwin Gulch Rd was good enough for spikes. It was a good call until I reached the upper TH. The trench from there to tree line was pretty sloppy and snow shoes would have helped. Once on the rib, spikes were fine all the way to the top. Hardly any snow. Once on the ridge there are a few snow fields to cross depending on your line. A slip on some of these snow fields could end badly. An axe might be helpful. There was no shortage of high winds and cold temps. On the way out I found many places where blowing snow had covered the trench. I had to use my trekking poles to probe for the firm trench. Stepping off on either side resulted in sinking down three feet into soft snow, a total energy suck. Once again snow shoes would have helped. |
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1/24/2015 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 1/26/2015, By: jmanner Info: I went up Antero Saturday with some 14ers folks. We found continuous snow from the car to the 11,800 rib. Two of us skinned to that point and ditched the skis. The rib was fairly dry to 13.8K and from the saddle to the summit only required traversing a few short snow fields. There is not enough snow to ski from the summit (maybe from 14K). There are a few good aspects which could allow a ski from 13.5ish to your car, but it would be a lot of work for little reward. We found the snowpack to not be too terrible. Definitely a 1" wind slab on top of unconsolidated snow, but nothing crazy hard. Once back to the ski stash we were able to ski the 3.7 miles back to the car. There are a few ice flows between 1.5-.5 miles from the road and one large grouping of rocks at 1 mile. I got only 3 pen-head sized core shots from this, they were definitely worth it. For a road ski it was pretty fun. Climber Steve is putting up a trip report, so you can see the pictures there if you need them or send me a PM and I'll share the Google file. FYI: we got 13.7 with a small detour so I'd say that 13.3-.13.5 miles is an likely accurate distance for this climb. |
